


Snowbound

by tentaclekitten



Category: City of Hunger (Video Game)
Genre: Canadian Shack, Cyborgs, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Snow, Snowed In
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-18 18:33:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13687416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tentaclekitten/pseuds/tentaclekitten
Summary: Ice creatures, frozen lakes and snowstorms. Tuuri is definitely getting the adventure she was after, and Sigrun is probably the most exciting thing around.





	Snowbound

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kiraly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiraly/gifts).



 Small electric shocks kept buzzing through her shoulder as the cold water fried her robotic arm. Tuuri struggled to reach the surface, struggled to get just one more breath before her arm stopped working. She couldn’t, wouldn’t die like this, all alone in this icy lake. Sigrun would think it was her fault. That thought gave Tuuri a burst of strength and her head broke through the water and the thin layer of ice that had already started to reform. Treading water, she gasped for air, breathing in deep.

Shots flared brightly, over on the left shore. Sigrun was still fighting the pack of ice dogs, all on her own. Shaking the water out of her ears, Tuuri listened. There was no sound of claws on ice, no creak or scratch of ice dogs sneaking up on her. Only one of the creatures had followed her onto the ice, and that one had sunk to the bottom of the lake when the ice had broken under their combined weight. The only sounds she could hear were the chattering of her teeth and the distant shots and howls.

Cold. She tried to raise her robotic left arm, but a shower of sparks bursting from her shoulder was the only reaction. It was dead and cold and heavy, dragging her down even more than her water-logged clothes. Refusing to give up, Tuuri swam closer to the ragged edge of the ice. Slowly, slowly, she put her good hand on it, then slid more and more of her right arm up onto the ice. As soon as her torso touched the ice, a good chunk of ice crumbled, dunking her underwater again.

Cold. So cold. She couldn’t feel her toes anymore. Kicking her feet regardless, Tuuri broke through the surface one more time, gasping in some much-needed air. Cold. Heavy. Clumsy with cold and fatigue, she slapped at the ice, knowing quite well that there was no way it could hold. Warm fingers closed around her frozen ones. A strong grip. Blinking stupidly, Tuuri gasped, swallowing water. Coughing, she tried to hold on, but her fingers were too weak to help.

“I’ve got you.”

Sigrun’s words reached her as if from a great distance. Strong fingers around her wrist. Movement.

By the time the darkness faded away, Tuuri was almost completely on the ice, only her feet dragging in the water still. She tried to help, tried to lift her feet, but the ice creaked dangerously.

“Hold still, I’ll have you out of here in wink.”

The next time Tuuri came to, the red flicker of fire danced across her closed lids. She was so cold, her robotic arm still dead and heavy. Something was tugging on her clothes and someone was muttering. It took all of her strength to drag her eyes open. Sigrun’s red hair was beautiful in the light of the fire, hanging wetly around her face. Another tug, and her boot finally came off. Her wet socks followed, as well as her trousers. Shivering, Tuuri couldn’t even lift her hips to help. Breathing was as much as she could manage. Another person’s body warmth was the best thing to combat hypothermia, but she couldn’t even reach for Sigrun.

“Lets get you warmed up,” Sigrun murmured, hugging her close. The glorious warmth of Sigrun’s body was the last thing Tuuri felt before the darkness claimed her again.

The next time she awoke, her mind felt a lot clearer. The fire had burned down to a low glow. The air was warmer than she would have thought possible, out here in the frozen lands. She felt warm, comfortable. Sigrun was snoring into her ear, the sound as familiar as her own heartbeat. Sigrun was spooning her, holding her close with one arm wrapped around her middle, and two tattered blankets were keeping their bodyheat in. Turning her head just a little, Tuuri looked around. This wasn’t a cave or even an abandoned cabin. The floor seemed to be cheap synthetic carpet, the walls metal. What kind of place had her crazy captain found here? She didn’t have the strength to stay awake long, drifting back to sleep before her tired brain could figure out the answer.

“Wake up, fluffyhead,” Sigrun said, shaking her shoulder.

“I’m awake,” Tuuri yawned, rubbing her eyes. Sitting up, she looked around. The walls were rusty and the carpet faded, the room long-ish. “An old train?” she guessed.

“In a tunnel, yes,” Sigrun agreed with a grin. “My crew used to stop here on the way to Southtown, before it was overrun by monsters. Haven’t been here in oh, five years I guess. Lucky the wood was still there.”

Sigrun had gotten dressed at some point before Tuuri woke up, but Tuuri was still in her, luckily dry now, underwear. Even with the blankets she was a bit cold. “Did you see my toolset? Oh no, I hope it’s not at the bottom of the lake. My grandma always said to strap your spare tools to your thigh, because if you lose a thigh, you have bigger problems than missing tools.”

“Nah, it’s here. It was in your coat pocket when I fished you out,” Sigrun replied and handed Tuuri the small, waterproof case. “Stay here, I’m going to check for monsters and see if I can hunt us up some breakfast.”

Sigrun stooped down for a quick kiss goodbye, then left to explore the cave and surrounding mountainside. Tuuri stretched her legs, wiggling her toes to make sure they still worked. If she lost any more body parts, Onni would throw a fit when she finally got home again. Her older brother hadn’t wanted her to leave at all. Tuuri shook his head fondly. Onni meant well, but his constant worry about everything from rust to monsters could be a bit smothering at times. The heavy weight of her robotic arm was distracting, so Tuuri set to work fixing it. She slid the slim diagnostic tool out of the case and inserted the tip in her shoulder port. Numbers flashed across the tiny screen, and she sighed in relief. Only two of the smaller joints had received any actual water damage, while most of her arm had been able to shut down fast enough to protect itself from the water. Using a tiny funnel, the removed the small amount of water that had collected inside her elbow, then restarted her arm from the shoulder down.

With a beep, each part came back to life. A couple of ligaments flashed orange, showing some damage from her fall and the cold, but none of that needed to be repaired right now. The only two red lights were in the joint of her pinky finger and in her elbow. The pinky joint was an easy fix, so she worked on that first, extracting the blown joint and replacing it with one of her spares. The elbow required a bit more care, but by the time Sigrun returned, her arm was back to 95% functionality, which was as much as could be expected without a proper workshop.

Sigrun stomped her feet to shake the snow off her boots before coming in. She had two snow bunnies slung over her shoulder, and a couple pieces of wood in a net. “There must be a hot spring somewhere close by,” Sigrun said while she took off her coat. “See how plump those bunnies are? That means there’s a stable source of food around. Only places around here where anything grows is near natural hot springs.”

Before Sigrun could roast the bunnies, she had to collect Tuuri’s clothes, most of which were still lying around the fire where they’d been put to dry. She threw them at Tuuri, who caught them with a surprised “Eep!”. Sitting down across the fire, Sigrun sharpened two sticks with her knife. Tuuri dressed slowly, quite aware of Sigrun’s eyes on her. She certainly didn’t need to wiggle her butt quite so much to put her trousers on, but the way Sigrun’s eyes lit up warmed her up more than the fire could.

“There’s another cave about a day’s march from here. I figure if we cave hop, we should reach the city in a week,” Sigrun said. “We just have to wait for the storm to pass first.”

Tuuri nodded. Most of the official maps she’d seen of this area said simply ‘frozen wasteland’, but some of the hand-drawn maps the University had acquired from mercenary groups and adventurers showed small hiding spots, depots and hotsprings that made travel off the road just barely possible. The guard never went here, since there were no bandits to roust and beasts this far away from settlements were not considered a problem. She sat down cross-legged on the carpet beside Sigrun, watching the bunnies cook. Her stomach grumbled and she sighed, leaning against Sigrun’s side. “I wish we’d find an old snowplow or tank. I’m sure I could fix one up with a bit of time,” Tuuri mused. There wasn’t really any possibility of that though. This part of the continent had been buried under snow for nearly 200 years by now. Down south you might occasionally find a still-working piece of machinery outside, but here, the only things that were useable were generally hidden in caves or underground.

Sigrun reached for her hand and linked their fingers. “We’ve got a saying at home. Good company makes half the journey.”

Blushing, Tuuri squeezed her fingers in return. She definitely didn’t mind being alone with Sigrun for a week or more, snow or no snow. This wasn’t quite what she’d imagined when she’d dreamed of adventure and seeing the world, but she wasn’t about to complain. With Sigrun around, life was never boring, and you didn’t even need snow creatures to keep it that way.

 


End file.
